Tonight's game is critical, if you believe a higher draft spot guarantees the Oilers a better player, because a win puts the Oilers within four points of the Islanders, while a loss puts them eight points back.

Let the race begin.

The Oilers are 6-2-2 in their last ten games, with only Minnesota and Philadelphia picking up more points during that stretch. They've been out shot in 9 of those games, and were tied in the other one, a 3-0 loss to Minnesota.

Ben Scrivens and Ilya Bryzgalov have been exceptional in goal, and during the two regulation losses the Oilers were shutout out both times. They are winning due to goaltending which hasn't happened regularly in quite some time.

The offence has only scored 10 goals in the last seven games, and their top-six forwards need to play better.

Hall, Eberle, Perron and Yakupov have one goal each over the last seven games, while Nugent-Hopkins and Gagner have none. These six need to start producing goals.

LINEUP

I like the decision to play Gagner with Hall. The Oilers need Gagner to play well down the stretch for various reasons. If they don't trade him they him need to regain some confidence, and if MacTavish is looking to move him then he needs 89 to play much better. It will be difficult to trade him for anything of value if he keeps struggling, so play him with Hall the rest of the year and hope he gets going.

I thought they might start Fasth. Usually coaches play players against their former team, and with the Kings coming in on Sunday I thought Scrivens would play then, but Eakins said he told Fasth to prepare that he is playing Sunday.

Fasth's last NHL game was November 18th. He missed 37 games with a muscle inflammation/lower body issue, but he did play four games in the AHL in February and told me on Tuesday that he is 100% healthy and ready to play.

It is hard to argue against playing Scrivens because he has been outstanding, so it does make sense to stick with the hot goalie.

Fasth is looking forward to battling for the starting job. "It is good to have two goalies competing for the job. I think it helps a team to have two guys who want to start and are capable of it," he told me Tuesday.

I love his attitude. This team needs more competition. The second line should be competing with the first line for PP and ES time. Same thing on the blueline, and it would refreshing if Fasth's attitude towards competition was embraced by all the players and the organization.

The management, coaching and the players have to show they don't accept losing. It is easy to say you don't, but actions speak louder than words and it is time that everyone in the franchise displayed a winning attitude.

QUICK HITS...

The NHL's decision to lower the Devil's punishment regarding cap circumvention looks awful. Did Lou Lamoriello think this was possible at the 2012 draft, when he elected to keep the 29th overall pick instead of forfeiting it? Maybe, but today that decision still looks foolish. Currently the Devils own the 11th overall pick, and depending how the final 19 games unfold they could forfeit a top-ten pick.

Hemsky played junior in Hull, just outside Ottawa, but I don't think that will be enough of a reason for him to not test free agency. This year's crop of free agents forwards isn't very deep, so he could fetch a good contract in July.

I wrote above that yesterday was the playoff roster deadline and not the trade deadline. NHL teams can still make trades today, but the players traded aren't eligible for the postseason. If the Oilers and Sabres wanted to make a trade today or next week they could.

I don't understand why the NHL only allows four callups from now until the end of the season. The lottery eliminates teams from guaranteeing themselves the first overall pick, but even if they put in a rule that said you could only have three call ups on an NHL roster at one time, baring injury, after the deadline would make more sense.

The Oilers would like to see Anton Lander, Tyler Pitlick, Taylor Fedun, Oscar Klefbom and maybe even Marc Arcobello, but based on the rules only three of them can be recalled, unless the Oilers get into serious injury troubles. (If I read CBA correctly, I think Larsen counts as one -- can anyone confirm? -- which leaves only three recalls left.) If there are only three recalls remaining, then Klefbom, Lander and Pitlick would be the three I'd want to see.

Playing one or two NHL games can be a great learning tool for young players. It gives them a taste of the league, but more importantly they can find out how challenging the league is and what they need to work on in the off season. Players always tell themselves what they need to work on, but when they actually get to play in a game, they have a better sense of how hard it actually is and what they need to improve on to stay in the NHL.

The goalie situation in Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton is very even. Today the Oilers' goalies have 79 career NHL starts, the Flames' duo has 68 career starts while the Canucks tandem has started 59 NHL games.

Out of those six goalies: Scrivens (51), Fasth (28), Ramo (66), Ortio (2),Markstrom (38) and Lack (21) which one do you think emerges as the best goalie?

The Edmonton Oilers need to change their practice habits. Earlier this year Ladislav Smid said he was surprised at how intense the Flames' practices were. Today, after his first practice in Minnesota, Ilya Brzygalov said Minnesota's practices have "a way faster pace." Compile that with Barry Trotz ripping Devan Dubynk's techniques, and Ken Hitchcock saying Magnus Paajarvi needed to learn the game, I'd say this is an organizational issue. Paajarvi, Dubnyk and Smid were all here before Eakins, so the lack of intense practices and attention to detail has been an issue this year and in previous seasons.

The Oilers, specifically MacTavish and Eakins, need to listen to these comments from former players, take them to heart and improve the situation. If they don't improve how they practice, it will be hard to improve on game day.

TONIGHT...

GAME DAY PREDICTION: Both of these teams would love to eventually jump into the big boys fish bowl and compete for the playoffs, and tonight the Oilers show they are at least closer to getting there than the Islanders with a 6-1 victory (they have to score at some point).

OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: ~The Islanders won't be very competitive.~ Tavares is injured while Vanek and McDonald were traded in the past 48 hours. That is three of their top-six scorers.

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS GAME DAY PREDICTION: The Oilers sell out streak ends tonight. Of all the remaining home games none are less attractive to hockey fans than tonight. The surprise is that the Oilers announce that it isn't a sell out.

One of Canada's most versatile sports personalities. Jason hosts The Jason Gregor Show, weekdays from 2 to 6 p.m., on TSN 1260, and he writes a column every Monday in the Edmonton Journal. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/JasonGregor

Lowes plan is simple. Keep this team at, or next to last in the league, until they draft a kid who makes them all look like winners.

They won't find a Weber type to come to this ship show, so securing Ekblab is their best option. And that starts with another loss tonight to the Islanders. Losing is clearly the intended/acceptable outcome under Kevin Lowes watch.

True, because Lowe with his 6 rings as a player does know something about winning.

I think we did WAY better than the islanders this deadline. I can honestly see this team finish 20th next year, but still in the hunt till close to the end. I think Mac T is slowly, but wisely, changing this team for the better. Eakins will be around next year, but with a whole new coaching staff. The oil are 6-2-2 all you people saying how bad they are. That is a huge improvement If we can keep that up down the stretch it would be better for the team. No Ekblad, but any trade assets will be valued higher on a team crushing it down the stretch.

Of course I do, otherwise why bother to post here and follow them?, that would just be torture or stupidity. The Oilers have nowhere to go but up, whereas Vancouver is on full free fall mode. Cheer up though, at least the Canucks can say they know the feeling when it comes to losing game 7 of the Stanley cup. West coast Canada NHL: The little teams that could.

If this team gets less emberassing it will be inspite of coaching and management.

With all due respect to Dallas Eakins (which, at this point, is none), is that 1-3-1 power play set up not a set up for a 2 on 1 the other way? Is there a reason why no other team uses it? Newsflash, Dallas - this is the NHL. AHL tactics, no matter how brilliant and original you think they are, don't work here.

I love Gregor's comment that "...the Islanders won't be very competitive. Tavares is injured while Vanek and MacDonald were traded...".

Actually, Gregor, as the saying goes, hard work beats skill when skill doesn't work hard. Although after a few seasons of this bilge, I am wondering about the actual skill level here.

All I know is that for most pro hockey players, a game in the NHL is a rare privilege, and there seem to be more than a few Islanders tonight playing with the attitude that this might be their only chance at the big leagues.

On the other hand, with the attitude fostered here, these entitled, sulky young adults (they aren't kids anymore) wearing Oiler colours, look as if we the fans are lucky to be watching them break a sweat.

The only thing I learned from this game is that the rink they suck in seems to be a good enough rink for them to suck in. Not sure why were paying for a new arena for them to go suck in when they suck just fine in this one.

So for the 50th or so game this season the Oilers come out with no fire. Then the competitive spirit in the players takes over, they avoid a deflating unlucky bounce, and they come back and win. And yet people still come on this site and say coaching isn't the issue. Why can't Eakins get this team playing to it's potential for 60 minutes every night?! Fire Eakins, it's so freakin' obvious he isn't the guy for the job.

did you even watch the game or were you on your computer the whole time?

The team is finally starting to buy in and you want to fire the coach? You must really want McDavid.

I don't think you really understand hockey. This team has not had a real NHL coach since Mac-Tavish, and they haven't had a real GM since I don't know. Now they have both and if you can't see the changes you really aren't looking very hard.

Take a deep breath, everything will be ok. This team will get better

I watched almost every game this season, the team did not buy into Eakins, it was mostly due to the great performance of Scrivens! Don't tell me the many times of 3-on-1 or 2-on-1 were part of players buying into his crap. His mistake is such a long list throughout entire season that I doubt there will be many GMs out there will ever hire him as HC.

Seriously, the 2 loses on Scrivens were both shutouts. During the 11 game stretch that Oilers gave up avg 35 shots per game! Bryz also did a wonderful job for 4 of those games. If you believe that Eakins is the reason behind the 7-2-2 stretch then you clearly give him way too much credits and give Scrivens too little. It is not coincidence that Oilers got better ever since Scrivens' arrival. Just on the contrast, the longer they keep Eakins as coach, the better chance we will get McDavid.

I do think that Mac-T is doing all right to fill up the roster but the one huge mistake is he hired Eakins. Once more, just we want some consistency, doesn't mean we have to settle with BAD consistency. The so-called "a real NHL coach" statement is so laughable, Eakins NHL coaching experience was being assistant to losing Leafs behind Maurice and Wilson. Then he coached 4 seasons at AHL for Marlies. He had two good seasons out of four with AHL Marlies. So the NHL HC experience is the 64 games he has with Oilers so far. The other so-called NHL experience that he has is 150 games played for 8 different teams. I don't think he has a clue about how NHL is actually like and this guy is coaching in NHL?

As matter of fact, for all years during MacT's stint in Edmonton, I always like him as a player and a coach. His NHL resume is so long that I do believe he will figure it out about how to be a good GM, so far I like most of his moves other than hiring Eakins. I will give credit to the one who deserve the recent resurgence, it is MacT and Scrivens. Eakins? He may want all the credits, but he should take some of those blames too. He is neither hard or soft coach, he is a gimmick coach, he is one trick pony. At nowadays that NHL players shipped out of town faster than your post service, you can't expect to have the same players on roster to run the gimmicks.

You people talking about firing Eakins make me sick. This organization has had enough of the coaching carousel. These players will NEVER get better if the damn systems change every year. Fricking suck it up and deal. He's better than Quinn and Renney in my books. This team is now 7-2-2 in their last 11. I'm not saying they dont still have issues but Eakins said from the start he expected half a season or more till results started showing. Well imagine that. If we'd had Scrivens and Bryz to start the season we'd probably have 10 more wins cuz Dubynk blew that many games; thus why he's on the Habs farm team. This team wi get better. Lucky tonight sure. Give them a bit more size top 6 and a top 2 dman and they'll be fine. I doubt any of you fire the coach whiners could do a better job. You'd be coaching instead of whining if you could...

I find the mention of practice pace being slow in Edmonton believable but I have to ask.. Why don't guys mention that when they come here? Not everyone comes onto the team via AHL or junior, so we have guys here that are enjoying the cake practices here? You'd think someone would say.. "hey guys, I'm concerned these practices are too slow paced".

This would probably explain things a bit too though.

Perhaps if they did they'd get the fast train out of town for questioning the management/team leadership, e.g. Smid

Perhaps if they did they'd get the fast train out of town for questioning the management/team leadership, e.g. Smid

I was thinking maybe they'd get the Full Metal Jacket, soap-in-a-sock beatdown by teammates for making practice harder. But really, there has to be a guy that is too proud to sit and take it easy in practice like Gordon, Ference, Smytty etc. So it sounds a little far fetched in a way too unless it just happens that those other two teams have a crazy pace. I don't know. Just odd this is suddenly news now.

Pretty sure Vancouver and toronto are laughing harder at this sad sack of losers we call oilers

And.....here come the stupefied Vancouver fans. One thing we have learned is that the Gillis school of management runs franchises to the ground. Tambellini was his disciple right?. Vancouver is now left with a bat $hit crazy coach, the Sedin sisters, and a bunch of goons/dirty sacks. Kesler will be out in the summer and Edler will probably jump ship too.

Umm...If the Devils miss the playoffs it is good chance they have a top-ten pick or close. They won't use that pick.

Had they forfeited their 29th pick in 2012 then they would use this year's pick, and they wouldn't be picking 30th. Thus they could forfeit a top-ten pick.

From TSN:

The Devils will keep the first-round draft pick they were scheduled to forfeit this year, and the league will reduce the $3 million fine assessed against the team for circumventing the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement

The league said the Devils will be entitled to the 30th selection overall -- the last pick in the first round -- in the 2014 draft. They will not be permitted to trade or transfer its right to that pick.

So they get the last pick of the 1st round and it doesn't matter where they finish in the standings.

I finally see this swarm defense starting to come into fruition. Its on full display tonight, we enter the zone lose the puck on the offensive blueline and the other team swarms our goalie. By the Trident of Poseidon!

The only thing that I learned from this game is that Oilers really want the title for most SHA.

Fire Eakins! Fire Eakins! Fire Eakins!

The only thing I learned from this game is that the rink they suck in seems to be a good enough rink for them to suck in. Not sure why were paying for a new arena for them to go suck in when they suck just fine in this one.

I love Gregor's comment that "...the Islanders won't be very competitive. Tavares is injured while Vanek and MacDonald were traded...".

Actually, Gregor, as the saying goes, hard work beats skill when skill doesn't work hard. Although after a few seasons of this bilge, I am wondering about the actual skill level here.

All I know is that for most pro hockey players, a game in the NHL is a rare privilege, and there seem to be more than a few Islanders tonight playing with the attitude that this might be their only chance at the big leagues.

On the other hand, with the attitude fostered here, these entitled, sulky young adults (they aren't kids anymore) wearing Oiler colours, look as if we the fans are lucky to be watching them break a sweat.

Every time I think we've hit bottom, they open a trap door.

I could be wrong, but doesn't the ~ mean sarcasm.

I'm hoping it was meant as a joke…kind of like this organization.

Has it ever been this bad? I'm sure it felt like it in 2010 and 2011 and 2012, but this is pathetic.

I don't really care what everybody seems to think of Frazer, at least the front of the net is off limits when he is on the ice. Thought I would point out at least one positive. Other than that, this team is absolutely pathetic and it is obvious they want Eakins fired.
Holy sh!t. We actually scored. Now Smytty can retire hopefully.

Again, I've said this so many times but somehow someone still like to use "consistency" as an excuse for NOT firing a coach. So for one more time: just because we need some consistency at coaching position doesn't mean that we have to settle for BAD consistency. No one can trade the entire roster away (maybe Gillis can, still...) so it will be coach's job to bring out the best of the players. Eakins has only brought out the worst of the players, he points all fault on EVERYONE ELSE including FANS! How can you entrust someone who cannot shoulder any responsibility to lead? Not for once that he has ever admit the coaching errors which happened so many times throughout the season. You are drinking too much of Eakins' cool-aid, he is the reason why we suck so much this season. Just because Oilers have a little run for 7-2-2 which should be how this team suppose to be. In case that you missed it, we are still floating around basement of the league. That little run only prevent Oilers for being the worst team in the league again!

did you even watch the game or were you on your computer the whole time?

The team is finally starting to buy in and you want to fire the coach? You must really want McDavid.

I don't think you really understand hockey. This team has not had a real NHL coach since Mac-Tavish, and they haven't had a real GM since I don't know. Now they have both and if you can't see the changes you really aren't looking very hard.

Take a deep breath, everything will be ok. This team will get better

I watched the whole game. I dont think you understand hockey. Eakins has been an absolute failure. The powerplay was again a glaring reason why Eakins must go. Fire Eakins.

Couple things I noticed at last nights game:
- it was dead quite all game, fans not into it. Only when gretzkys face was shown
- Fraser played mean, best game as an oiler
- Larson is fast, maybe karlson type?
- Kids invisible
- Scrivens is a battler! So far so good!
- Hendricks is an awesome character guy, during warm up would hoot and holler and acknowledge the fans. Cool guy!

Larson is a Karlsson type? He is lucky he is in the NHL. He's playing for a job next year, probably in the KHL.

There's no buy in. You could watch the games or look at the underlying stats and realize there lifeless and get outplayed. Last night they never started playing till 5 mins left in the 2nd. You can not honestly believe their bought in with the lifeless play, and continued follies on the pp.

Goaltending is the great equilizer. Ben and Bryz are responsible for this last 10 games. The beat a brutal NY team missing Tavaras, McDonald and Vanek. They got outworked most of the game, and almost coughed up the win except for a great save by Scrivens.

Great point, "they got outworked most of the game". That is why this team will not succeed as soon as they could, they get outworked. The Flames outworked them last Saturday, they are a lazy team and that is not on the coaches. Scotty Bowman could coach this team, if they don't work, they will lose regardless of the game plan. Stop blaming Eakins, until they realize the hard work it takes to win games consistently they won't and I have to believe that comes with age and maturity.